"I Swear" Review: Film Highlights the Importance of Grace and Empathy

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At the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards earlier this year, an audience member shouted a racial slur while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented an award onstage. That audience member was John Davidson, a man with Tourette’s Syndrome. While some blamed the BBC (which broadcast the slur without editing it out), others were quick to blame Davidson, even though he cannot control his tics or language.

Those people — who criticized John without showing an ounce of grace—should be required to watch I Swear, the biopic about John’s life that brought him to the award show.

Written and directed by Kirk Jones, I Swear tells the story of John, who — at an early age — began experiencing tics he couldn’t control. The feature shows John (played as a youngster by Scott Ellis Watson) facing this unknown challenge, unable to explain his behavior. When his parents (Shirley Henderson and Steven Cree) judge and criticize his involuntary impulses, John faces the unknown affliction alone, longing for answers and compassion.

In these early scenes, Jones establishes the world John grew up in. Instead of showing brief glimpses of his childhood, the writer takes his time with these pivotal early sequences and really highlights John’s youthful mindset: a mindset that remained with him until his young adulthood.

The feature then flashes forward to years later as John (played now by Robert Aramayo) understands that he has Tourette’s and, like his parents, views it as something that prevents him from leading the full life they once imagined for him. “What can I do, y’know?” he says to former classmate Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith), believing that his own professional opportunities are limited because of his diagnosis. Shortly after that conversation, John befriends Murray’s mother, Dottie (Maxine Peake), a mental health professional, and moves in with their family.

Instead of focusing in on a certain period of John’s life, Jones wisely covers several different periods from his life and shows how John — a young man unsure of his condition — transforms into an empathetic employed adult who teaches people about Tourette’s Syndrome.

From his anxiety-plagued first dinner with Murray’s family to a job interview with community center caretaker Tommy (Peter Mullan), the feature highlights critical moments in John’s life that help make him into the person he became. These insightful scenes begin to show John what he is capable of, which sets the stage for the film’s inspiring third act.

Because John uses foul language (oftentimes at inappropriate moments), the feature isn’t for everyone, but if audiences are willing to overlook that, they will find something much more meaningful here. Based on a true story, this is the inspirational story about a man who understood the obstacle he faced but still found a way to build a full life, guiding and teaching others about Tourette’s.

In addition to celebrating the protagonist here (with Aramayo delivering an incredible and beautifully vulnerable performance in the lead role), the film also celebrates the grace that open-hearted people showed John when they offered him compassion and kindness rather than judgment and scorn. From Dottie telling John not to apologize for tics he couldn’t control to Tommy ignoring John’s language during a job interview, this film shows the importance of grace and decency in guiding people to become the best versions of themselves.

One only wishes that people offered that same grace after John Davidson’s outburst at the BAFTA awards.

This film’s focus on the importance of grace and empathy is one of the many reasons why people should seek this movie out.

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images / Manoli Figetakis / Stringer

John Hanlon is a film and TV critic whose work is syndicated on radio station websites across the country, including AM870TheAnswer.com and AM590TheAnswer.com. He began writing about television and films in late 2009 and has been published on CNN.com, The Week.com and USAToday.com. Hanlon has also been featured on the national radio shows The Dennis Miller Show and The Hugh Hewitt Show. He has also appeared on the Reelz television program Mark at the Movies.